Main news of January 16

A roundup of what has happened in the last 24 hours

WORLD

* The effectiveness of additional sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program is "doubtful," a Russian Foreign Ministry deputy said

* Iran Six participants holding a meeting in New York on Saturday decided against new sanctions on Tehran and will study new political methods to solve the issues, a Russian Foreign Ministry deputy said

* Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich will most likely win the first round of elections and hold a run-off election with current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a political analyst told RIA Novosti

* Talks on a new strategic arms reduction deal with the U.S. are difficult, but many points have been agreed on, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said

 

* After the candidates had traded their final insults and made their concluding speeches, election campaigning came to an end in Ukraine on Saturday, 24 hours before presidential polls

EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

- * International security forces are unable to guarantee the safety of rescue workers at night in Haiti's capital, a security forces spokesman told reporters

- * The bodies of the dead lying in the streets of Haiti's capital as the result of a powerful earthquake are being collected by front-loaders, piled together, and burned, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported

- * U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit quake-hit Haiti on Saturday together with the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

- * Another quake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale was registered some 60 km (37 miles) to the south of Haiti's Port-au-Prince late on Friday night, no information on casualties has been provided as of yet, the U.S. Geological Survey said

- * Haiti's government has handed over to the United States temporary control of its airport in the capital of Port-au-Prince to help relief efforts in the quake-stricken island nation

- * Major U.S. professional sports leagues and associations have collected and donated over $5 million to victims of quake-hit Haiti

 

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's photograph of the Tobol Kremlin in Siberia fetched 51 million rubles ($1.7 million) at a fundraising auction

* Russia has suspended SU-27 Flanker fighter jet flights until the cause of a deadly crash earlier in the week is determined, a Defense Ministry official told RIA Novosti

BUSINESS

* Russia can play a key part in the recovery and development of the Iraqi economy, an Iraqi MP has said

* Preparatory work ahead of the construction of the South Stream pipeline could be completed by the fall of 2010, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov

SPORTS

* Roman Pavlyuchenko's former club Spartak Moscow are unwilling to pay Tottenham Hotspur's asking price of 15 million pounds ($24.3 million) to bring the unsettled international back to Russia

* All three trucks from the Russian Team Kamaz have occupied the first three places of the 13th leg of the 2010 Dakar Rally in Chile

* Major U.S. professional sports leagues and associations have collected and donated over $5 million to victims of quake-hit Haiti